Verstappen pleased with return to points

Max Verstappen says he was pleased to return to the top 10 at the Austrian Grand Prix as he scored points for the second time in his Formula 1 career.

Verstappen qualified in seventh position and moved up to sixth at the start, before being demoted by Valtteri Bottas and latterly by Pastor Maldonado, leaving the Dutchman to collect eighth.

"I’m happy with today’s race, I think we did everything we could and had some good fights," he said.

"I enjoyed every lap to be honest! The car worked really well and especially the last few laps were quite exciting. We were very close to ending in P7, but I’m very happy with P8, it’s a great result for the whole team.

"We’ve learned more about the tyres and I think that the updates we brought are positive, so all in all, everything felt really good in the race today. I’m also happy to have finally scored some more points."

Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. suffered a slow stop before retiring due to a loss of power.

"We were doing a very good race but unfortunately, after the pit-stop I ran out of power all of a sudden and my race finished there," he said.

"It’s very disappointing, especially because we had managed to get into the top ten after only a couple of laps and I was very motivated."